The hepatitis B surface antigen (Australia antigen) discovered by Blumberg and associates, Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med., 40, 377 (1964) and the subsequent correlation with long incubation period hepatitis has stimulated much activity in screening blood donor populations in the interest of public health.
The use of antibody-sensitized latex particles reported in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,085,875 and 3,551,555 has been specifically adapted for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen in blood serum as described in The Journal of Immunology 108, No. 1, pages 108-111 (1972).
A sensitive but time-consuming radioimmune assay is described by Ling, C.M. and Overby, L.R., The Journal of Immunology 109, No. 4, pages 834-841 (1972) ).
There is a need, however, for an improved diagnostic method which is rapid, sensitive, and most importantly, reliable (minimal "false positives").